The Challenge of the Oracle
by Paceso
Summary: Fleur navigates her way through the third task of the Triwizard Tournament, and discovers new insights about herself in the process. An entry for round 5 of the International Wizarding Schools Championship.


International Wizarding School Championship – round 5

Beauxbatons 3rd year

Theme: Athena

Prompts: Meeting the Oracle of Delphi (main), Achilles Heel, Sword of Damocles

Word count: 3582

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Author's Note: Because Athena is noted for her wisdom and battle strategies, I wanted to set my story within the framework of the Triwizard Tournament. There was an immediate problem inherent in the lack of chronological overlap between the Delphic Oracle and the Hogwarts era, but I began to envisage an oracular figure mentoring Fleur through the tasks, who could provide supernatural wisdom and strategical advice. Her name is significant - Delphine means "from Delphi", while Kleodora was the name of one of the Thirae in Greek mythology. The Thirae were a trio of prophetic sister nymphs who lived on Mount Parnassus, where Delphi is located, and who were specialists in lithomancy (divination using stones). The name Kleodora means "great gift", and I like to think Madame Delphine was recognised by the staff and students at Beauxbatons for her great gift of prophetic insight. However, the wisdom spoken by an Oracle means nothing unless the enquirer listens and accepts it, and this was what Fleur had to discover.

* * *

**The Challenge of the Oracle**

Chapter 1 – Visions

(letter)

_Madame Kleodora Delphine_

_Professor of Divination_

_Beauxbatons Acad__é__mie de Magie_

_Les Pyr__é__n__é__es, FRANCE_

_._

_Dear Madame Delphine,_

_ Thank you very much for your advice about the first and second tasks of the Tournament. As you know, I was much afraid when Madame Maxime told me about the dragons. Your vision of me standing in front of the Hogwarts crest was most puzzling until I remembered the motto on it, which means "Never tickle a sleeping dragon". (A strange motto for a school, one thinks!) I thought of putting the dragon into a sleep _enchanté_, and so reaching the egg._

_ I am very sorry I failed in the second task. I was full of fear for Gabrielle, _pauvre petite_, and it clouded my thinking. Your vision of bubbles around my head gave me the idea to use the _Tête de Bulle_ charm, but I became frightened by the Grindylows and turned back. I am so ashamed! Grandm__è__re has said that she also struggled with magic in water, so perhaps that may be in me as well. _Néanmoins_, I am most grateful to Harry Potter for saving Gabrielle. He is young, you understand, but so brave. And he was very clever to think of the Gillyweed – I wish most fervently that I had remembered Madame Romarin teaching us its properties. It was kind of the judges to give me 25 points, for I do not believe I deserved any at all._

_ But now I must ask you about the third task. It is to be a maze, with many different challenges within it. We may have to encounter beasts, or obstacles, or any manner of strange things. Even worse, there will be a large audience, including our families. Maman and Gabrielle will be watching. I am in last place, so I do not believe I can win now, but I do not wish to disgrace myself as I did with the second task. Please write and tell me what visions you see._

_ With much gratitude,_

_ Fleur Delacour_

_PS. I hope my English is getting better; Madame Maxime has said that all our letters must be written in English while we are here, for practice._

_._

(reply)

_Mademoiselle Fleur Delacour_

_Beauxbatons Carriage_

_c/- Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_Scotland, UNITED KINGDOM_

_._

_Dear Fleur,_

_ My child, you have no need to be ashamed of your achievements so far. You performed the first task admirably, and in the second you were probably, as you say, too concerned for Gabrielle to think clearly. Remember that the other contestants were saving friends they had only known a short time; you, conversely, were saving your own flesh and blood. It is even possible that the judges gave you that greater challenge because they perceived your greater skill – it is, after all, no mean feat to have been selected as the Beauxbatons champion. Put it out of your mind now, though, for worrying about it will only hinder your preparations for the third task._

_ I have sought inspiration from the cards, the scrying bowl and my crystal ball. They have shown me several images, which I list here for your assistance:_

_1) the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx_

_2) Gabrielle trapped underwater (note: this seems more relevant to the second task, but my guides were clear that it was for this task. Perhaps it indicates something else that you fear?)_

_3) the Sword of Damocles_

_4) a mirror _

_ I do not know, of course, how these will appear in the task, but I hope that knowing them in advance will assist you to plan your preparations and strategy._

_ My final piece of advice, child, is the saying carved on the platform of my namesake Oracle: "know thyself". Your Achilles heel has always been in failing to know and believe the utmost of which you are capable, and thus you fall short of being able to achieve it in times of stress. Yet you have been an outstanding student and have been first in your class every year. Given that our academic programme is the most rigorous of any magical school anywhere in the world, you are well-equipped to meet any challenge you might face. Know that, believe it with all your heart, and you will go into the maze with the best advantage regardless of what the point score says. _

_ My fondest wishes for your success,_

_ Kleodora Delphine_

_._

Seated outside the Beauxbatons carriage in the early June sunshine, Fleur read this letter eagerly. She still felt embarrassed and ashamed about failing to complete the second task, and she was determined not to falter in the third task. Her qualms at seeking outside help for the tournament were somewhat allayed by frequent reminders to herself that all the contestants appeared to be receiving help to a greater or lesser degree. And after all, once each task began the competitors were on their own.

She puzzled over the four visions that Madame Delphine had enumerated. Something Egyptian, she mused – perhaps cat-related? Egyptian magic often included cats. Next, something she feared. She dismissed that for the moment as being too vague to be of much help. Then the Sword of Damocles – what could that mean? In truth, she rather felt as if a sword of Damocles was hanging over her own head! Succeed in the third task and she would be famous. Fail, and she would be disgraced for ever. But she had faith that Madame Delphine's visions were more directly related to the third task than to her feelings, so she dismissed her apprehensions and considered the image again. Might she need to summon a sword in order to do battle with something in the maze? She made a mental note to look for a sword among the suits of armour in the castle. And lastly, a mirror. Perhaps she would need a mirror to see something, or in some way a reflection of something would be important?

She re-read Madame Delphine's final paragraph and pondered it. Did she really underestimate herself, and in doing so impair her ability to fulfil her potential? She struggled to see how this could be. She loved to learn, and studying came easily to her. Her Veela heritage, too, had opened doors for her which might otherwise have remained shut. She knew she was clever and successful. Why else would the Goblet of Fire have chosen her as the Beauxbatons champion? And she was so often accused of being superior or snobbish. She shook her head. She didn't think Madame Delphine was right in describing underestimation as her Achilles heel.

She folded up the letter and put it carefully back in its envelope just as her friends called her to go up to the castle for dinner.

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Chapter 2 – One Week Remaining

In the fortnight since receiving Madame Delphine's reply to her letter, Fleur had practised every charm she could think of. She had pored over books in the Hogwarts library, in case they mentioned some spell or beast peculiar to Britain that she hadn't learnt back in France. She had also given much thought to the visions that Madame Delphine had shared with her. She reminded herself that the visions for the first two tasks had been suggestions for ways of dealing with the challenges, rather than being descriptions of the challenges themselves. She could not see, however, how she could use either a Sphinx or a pyramid inside the maze, since she would have neither of them. She had a faint thought that perhaps building a small pyramid somehow would enable her to see over an obstacle, but that was her only conclusion about that image.

As for the second vision, which Madame Delphine had suggested might symbolise something she feared… What _did_ she fear? First and foremost, failing in the task, of course. And she feared for the safety of her loved ones, especially Gabrielle. Fleur had always felt very protective toward her little sister and had, on one memorable occasion, valiantly defended Gabrielle from some much bigger boys who were taunting her. But how could these fears be aids for the task? She did not know.

Summoning a sword would be relatively easy, she knew. _Accio_ had always been one of her favourite charms – it was so simple, and so very useful. She had found a good suit of armour in the castle, polished to a high shine by the house-elves. The sword was sharp – she had tested it with her finger and winced as it made a small cut – and not too heavy for her to wield.

There remained the mirror. Would she need a mirror to see behind her? Or was it more symbolic than that, and might there be something which looked like a mirror – a pool of water, perhaps, or ice, or even silver – that she might need to use in one of the challenges? She decided it would be wise to carry a small hand mirror, just in case.

There was little more she could do to prepare – only keep pondering Madame Delphine's visions and hope that the correct interpretation of them would be one she had anticipated and practised for.

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Chapter 3 – The Third Task

Fleur stood at the entrance to the maze, eager to hear Ludo Bagman's whistle. Harry, Cedric and Viktor had already begun the third task, and Fleur waited impatiently for the minutes to tick by. She was barely aware of the packed stand of spectators. She had waved to her mother and Gabrielle some minutes ago, but now her whole being was concentrated on the gap in the hedge in front of her.

Ludo Bagman's whistle sounded for the third time, and Fleur jogged rapidly into the gloom of the maze's thick hedges. She was some minutes behind the others, and knew she needed to move quickly to make up ground. At the first fork she turned right. The gloom deepened, and she pulled out her wand and murmured, "_Lumos_". The glow illuminated her path and she jogged forward. So far the way was clear. She turned another corner and stopped short. There was a giant spider web across the path, with a monstrous spider clinging tightly to it and watching her with unblinking eyes. Fleur raised her wand to stupefy the spider and slash at the web, but something made her look again. Only then did she see the sword suspended over the web in the shadow of the twenty-foot high hedge. Her eyes traced along the wisp of spider silk holding the sword and followed it down to the section of web underneath the spider's feet. She shuddered at what would have happened had she followed her initial inclination.

She thought quickly, and then her eyes lit up. Short jabs of fire flashed from her wand to the spider, which moved uneasily. More jabs of fire caused the spider to reluctantly change its position. The crucial part of the silk was now free from the spider's feet, but she had no idea what the creature would do if she destroyed its web. She kept jabbing at it with fire, ushering it over to the side of the web nearest to the sword. Her eyes measured the spider's position, and she decided the time was right. She lunged forward at the web, slashed the silk leading to the sword, and watched breathlessly as the sword dropped directly onto the creature and impaled it to the ground. Then she stepped gingerly through the gaping hole in the web and hurried on.

As she took turn after turn through the maze – right, left, left again – she occasionally heard a gasp or grunt from the other side of one of the thick hedges as her path took her near one of her fellow contestants. Knowing they were still ahead of her, she hastened her steps.

After another turn, she found herself in a long passage – almost a tunnel, for the hedges grew very close together overhead. She could see dim shadows on the ground at the far end of the passage and she raised her wand to shine its light as far as possible. She walked forward slowly, straining her eyes to see. One of the shadows took shape as it rose to its feet and snarled. She jumped back in alarm. She could see it clearly now, and recognised its black cat-like shape as a Matagot. As it bounded toward her she shot a Stunning spell at it. It morphed into three and she belatedly remembered that Matagots multiply when attacked. She cast a quick _Protego_ to give herself time to think. The other cats had all followed the first, and they prowled around her Shield charm, hissing and snarling. Their bulbous blue eyes shone angrily in the gloom.

Fleur looked at them in frustration. How could one defeat an animal that multiplied every time one cast a spell at it? She racked her brains, trying to recall any mention of Matagots in battles. There was, of course, the occasion when an Englishman had illicitly entered the _Ministère des Affaires Magiques_ and had escaped from a cluster of Matagots after the alarm was raised, but he had done so by summoning a Zouwu, which Fleur knew was beyond her ability.

The cats' frustrated pacing had been teasing at her memory almost without her being aware of it, and she suddenly realised what it reminded her of. Her own pet cat at home behaved in much the same way when he felt aggrieved at the lateness of his daily saucer of milk. Milk! Could she…? Would it work?

From the safety of her _Protego_ shield, she summoned a bowl of milk and used her wand to deposit it close to the hedge. One of the Matagots had watched the bowl float past his nose, and he followed it eagerly. Fleur quickly summoned another bowl, and then a third. The sound of the first Matagot's lapping attracted the others and Fleur soon had a line of bowls along the hedge, each with a Matagot lapping eagerly at it. She gingerly removed her Shield charm and walked quietly along the path behind the oblivious animals. Just before the end of the passage, she turned and cast another _Protego_. So long as it lasted for enough time to allow her to get beyond the Matagots' hearing, she thought she would be safe.

Fleur heaved a sigh of relief at having successfully negotiated another obstacle. As she continued deeper into the maze, she wondered if any of the other competitors had encountered the Matagots. Thoughts flashed through her mind in quick bursts, and she remembered Madame Delphine's vision. Matagots were known to resemble the Sphinx – and there had been the sword above the spider too. It began to look as if the visions this time had been of the challenges themselves rather than their solutions. Anxiously, she tried to recall the other two visions. Of course, the mirror – she could feel her small hand-mirror still in her pocket. And – oh yes, Gabrielle. As her tension rose, she pushed the thought from her. She would learn what the visions meant all too soon, no doubt.

Left, right, right, right. She paused at a fork. Which way? Something told her to go left, and she turned in that direction. The path bent back on itself around the end of a section of hedge and there, huddled in a corner, was Gabrielle with a werewolf bending over her. Fleur screamed.

The werewolf looked up, snarled, and froze. Fleur stood sobbing, her hand pressed to her mouth. She adored her little sister, and the terrifying thought of being unable to protect Gabrielle from a werewolf attack had often troubled her dreams.

She didn't know how long she stood there, but eventually it struck her that the werewolf seemed curiously disinclined to move. With that thought came the realisation that it was extremely unlikely that a werewolf would be left to roam the maze unrestricted, and a faint haziness about the edges of what she was seeing led her to the truth. It was a Boggart – not a real werewolf and not her beloved sister. She raised her wand.

"_R-riddikulus_," she said, with all the firmness she could muster.

The Boggart remained in the same terrifying form. Fleur took a deep calming breath and thought of the funniest thing she could imagine. She flung her head back, raised her wand again and said confidently, "_Riddikulus_."

The Boggart-werewolf suddenly found itself wearing pink polka-dot bloomers while its teeth and claws became red hearts. Fleur laughed aloud, and the werewolf and pseudo-Gabrielle disappeared with an angry puff.

Fleur paused for a few moments while she regained her shaken nerve. She still felt a little tremulous as she walked on, but she couldn't help giggling occasionally when she remembered the polka-dotted werewolf with red hearts in place of teeth and claws.

She was gaining confidence now as she moved successfully through the maze. Each new obstacle had challenged her in different ways and she had mastered them all. If she could only manage to reach the trophy before the others, she felt she had a good chance of regaining the points she had lost in the second task.

She found herself in a dead end and retraced her steps. A cleverly concealed side opening caught her eye and she dived through it. Facing her in a small clearing was a large frame, and in the centre of it floated the Triwizard Cup. She gasped with excitement and dashed forward. As she came closer, though, she realised that even the last stage was not to be easy. The massive frame surrounded an ornate mirror, and the Triwizard Cup was visible in its depths. She stared at it longingly. She had not realised how desperately she yearned to be first to touch the Cup, thus wiping out the ignominy of her earlier failure.

For several long minutes she forgot everything as she gazed at her goal. Then a rustle nearby made her look around quickly to see if another competitor had also found the mirror. There was no-one there, though, and she turned back to the mirror and began to think. She attempted a Summoning spell on the Cup, but it remained ensconced in the mirror's depths. She looked behind the mirror, but there was nothing to be seen. She thought of using a _Reducto_ curse to blast the mirror out of the way but hesitated to damage it. Puzzled and somewhat frustrated, she took several steps backward, wondering if a broader perspective would show some hint that remained obscure while she was so close to the glass.

When she moved back, she saw for the first time words written across the top of the frame. They read, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi." She did not recognise the language and her heart sank. It was certainly not French, and since several of her fellow students at Beauxbatons were Spanish or Italian she knew enough of those languages to know it was also neither of them.

She sank down on the grass, disheartened. She had come so far, and now it seemed she was to fail at the last hurdle. Was she doomed to repeat the miserable outcome of the second task? Was she not even as clever or as skilled as Harry Potter, three years her junior?

As she sat gazing hopelessly at the mirror and its tantalising contents, Madame Delphine's words flitted into her mind: "Your Achilles heel has always been in failing to know and believe the utmost of which you are capable." She thought back over the tournament – her doubts, her failures, and her desire to ask for Madame Delphine's advice at every step – and suddenly realised what her teacher had meant. Even in her successes she had looked for the failures. She had focused on having burnt her skirt in the first task, rather than on having retrieved the golden egg. She had considered herself such a failure in the second task that she had not felt worthy of any points at all, despite her successful _T__ê__te de Bulle_ charm and the greater stress for her in having to save her beloved sister instead of a friend. At school she had been a successful student, yes, but only because she had always striven so compulsively to prove herself better than she believed she was.

She raised her head in hope. In the thrill of this new self-realisation she believed she could, even now, win through. She looked again at the mirror and its mysterious inscription. The first word leapt out at her and she realised it was the English word "desire" backwards. Excitedly she began reading from right to left, and traced out the words "I show you not your face but your heart's desire." Her mind seemed to be working with crystal clarity, and she grasped that the mirror did not contain the Cup at all. It was merely a distraction to entice unwary competitors away from the real Cup, which was still somewhere in the maze.

She leapt up and ran toward the opening through which she had entered. For the first time, she really believed in herself and that she could win the tournament, and she was determined to do so.

The Stunning spell fired through the hedge by the false Alastor Moody as he patrolled the outside of the maze caught her completely by surprise.


End file.
